It has been years since Wayne Kilgo and I fished for catfish using a fly rod and yellow grasshoppers for bait. Well, tonight caught some hoppers and will hit a private lake early in the morning. Bring back old memories just thinking about the fun we had had over the years fishing for catfish with a fly rod.

Nice i got my first cat on a fly rod last week. Good luck to you! Might get youa big LMB while your tossing them big hoppers

Now that looks like a lot of fun right there man.

Fishing was slow this morning. Only 1 catfish caught and Wayne caught it. We did catch 8 large red ear perch.

That cat sure looks good though, good catch guys!

man- thanks for the memory blast

This month when the wind stops this is a great way to fish in the lakes. The blue cats will skimm the tops looking for grasshopers. Most of time you will find them in deeo water 30 to 40 foot.

Bud, those are some big 'ol yellow grasshoppers!! Get them off Johnson Grass or fencelines? Ours aren't quite that large yet, but growing dang fast.

Nice channel!

Congrats on the healthy channel cat! I bet that was a blast on fly rod

Corn field next to a farm to market road about 2 miles from my house. Lots of hoppers in our area and having a feast on corn stalks and leaves.

Mr. Doyle, coupla' questions (I'm full of 'em)

1) How to catch the hoppers?

2) Best rig for for non fly fishers?

Use a fly swatter and a water or coke bottle.

When I was younger I didn't need the fly swatter, but oh well---

Great fishing!!!!!!!!!!!! You must of have some good fights not only from that channel but from the red ears as well.

Catching those yellow grasshoppers for bait was a nightly ritual for me as a kid on the brazos. We would just wait until dark and go out to any tall grass with a flashlight. At night they are very hesitant to jump and you can usualy walk right up to them and pick them off. So unless they have wised up over the past 15 years that should work.

Also we learned real quick not to try and catch anything but the big yellow grasshoppers. I know those big green katy-dids look like good bait but you will only attempt to grab one with your bare hand once.

Used to take a burlap bag and drape across the front grill and drive thru the fields. Grasshoppers legs get stuck in the burlap, then pick 'em off.

here's a way to make grasshoppers work even better ... catch them and put them in a 2 litre pop bottle and let them die and then dump them out into your wire basket so that they can air out some ... the dead grasshoppers attract a lot bigger fish as the tobacco smell is a lot stronger on the dead ones ... found this out when fishing with grasshoppers below keystone dam and I caught a limit of fish on the live ones anywhere from 6 to 10 lbs each and I had two dead ones in the bucket from the night before ... I put one of the dead ones on my rod and threw it out .. didn't even hit bottom and I caught a 22.5 lb blue ... did it again with the other dead grasshopper and it only set there about a minute and I caught a 50 lb blue on the next one ... but try that and see if it doesn't improve your grasshopper fishin ... always catch your hoppers off johnson grass too ... they work a lot better than anything else. I've tried using some that I caught off water weeds a few different times and never caught a single fish

Awesome Tips guys!

Lots of 'Hoppers around!

First you will need something to put them in after you catch them. Go to Wal Mart or Academy and buy several gallon type cricket buckets and then by a tire shop and get several old tire tubes that are no longer useable. Slit open the tube, place a dinner plate on the rubber and circle the plate using a Sharpie marker or ballpoint pen. Make sure your plate is considerable larger than the end of the cricket bucket. Using scissors cut along your mark and when completed you will have a round piece of rubber the size of the plate. Take a sharp knife or razor blade and cut a 4 or 5 inch slit in the middle of your cutout. Remove the funnel and lay the rubber cutout over the end of the bucket and stretch the rubber with the direction of the slip. With someone helping you, take bailing wire and put around the end of the bucket and secure the stretched rubber to the bucket. Repeat the process with another piece of rubber but in the opposite direction. Any excess rubber can be trimmed off but leave about an inch past the wire.





Now you are ready to go catch some hopper. After dark take a flashlight and head to a country road with Johnson grass or blood weeds on the side of the road. Right now corn patch next to the road will be good but as the corn stalks become dry, hoppers will leave.
As Johnson grass starts to dry up, try blood weeds as they will stay green all summer. Easy picking using a flashlight.

The slit in the rubber will allow you to put the hoppers in the bucket as you catch them and you will be able to insert part of your hand to catch them when you start to fish. After fishing if you have hoppers left, just hang the bucket in a tree so it is in the shade all day and where wind can blow through the bucket. About every 2 days, put some Johnson grass leaves, lettuce leaves or pieces of a peach or cantaloupe in the bucket. I try not to put over 50 to 60 hoppers in a bucket and you can keep them alive for weeks as long as you feed them. Cut up ripe peaches & cantaloupe works best for me and provide an excellent source of moisture that the hoppers need.

A spinning reel on a long rod might work but I suggest that you invest in a low price fly rod, reel and fly line. You can get a combo (manual reel, 9 foot rod & floating line) for around $50.00. A manual reel will work just as good as an automatic. With a little practice, in no time you will be popping the water like a pro. Tie a 17 lbs monofilament line to your fly rod line. I use a fly line eye insert and tie the monofilament this way. Insert a very small bobber (cork) on the line and then a 1/0 or 2/0 plain shank Eagle Claw hook on the end. Do not use any weight. Shred the hopper on your hook starting at the back end ending with the point of the hook just sticking through the head of the hopper. Set the bobber about 2 feet above the hook (you can try several depts) and then pop the hopper on the water several times and then let it lay. If no bite in about 30 seconds, repeat the popping process. When the bobber goes under, do not set the hook immediately, let the fish run and when the line is tight, set the hook.



I fish private soil conservation lakes and try to find one with murky water. If the water is too clear, you will have problems with perch. Fish from daylight till about 9AM and then about an hour before dark. Morning fishing is the best.

Wow; great thread!
I'm not much of a catfisherman, but I would not have considered grasshoppers for catfish bait!
A friend of mine is turning me on to big cats, so I'm sure I'll use this information.
Thanks for all of the tips!

By the way, would it work Ok to put one or more dead grasshoppers on a 2/0 or 4/0 circle hook?

Thank you Mr. Doyle for such a detailed and informative response. The photos were a great touch, and really help explain the construction/mod of the hopper house.

Will be trying this and also Tiny's method in the near future!

bluewave do yu fish the grashoppers with bobber close to surface and drift? Neverb treid that before but i have seen a grasshopper mating season over at t-wok where they are everywhere.....HF

I just started fly fishing. How do you hook up the grasshoppers? What size hook and where on the hopper do you hook? I throw a 5 weight. Would have never thought hoppers could catch big cats.

Also, I saw thousands of yellow grasshoppers below the dam at Ray Bob a few weeks ago. They were in the tall grass and would all fly at once as I walked the trail down to the spillway. If I would have known this then, I wouldn't have been flicking them off me while juggling my minnow bucket and rods.

Yellow grasshoppers are great I've caught them on the Colorado, Trinity, and Neches river with a lot of success but haven't had that much success in the lakes. Catching grasshoppers brings back a lot of great memories, Johnson grass and blood weeds. I too have frozen the grasshoppers and had great luck.